TOKYO, Oct. 5, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Internet Initiative Japan, Inc. (IIJ) (Nasdaq:IIJI) (TSE1:3774), one of Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions providers, today announced that it will build a cloud computing platform at data centers connected directly through IIJ's high-volume backbone network, and this will be used to deliver a line of newly developed cloud services under the name IIJ GIO.

Ahead of the emergence of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which belongs to the cloud computing phenomenon, The IIJ Group has been offering its Integration & Business Platform Service (IBPS) since 2000, which enabled customers to add network resources and system resources on demand as an outsourced service. This newly built cloud platform consists of several thousands of servers, and this will be merged with the dynamic IBPS to provide IIJ GIO as a new cloud service. The first service, to be introduced in November 2009, is GIO Private, a private cloud service that is highly customizable to meet diverse needs. Following that in April 2010 will be GIO Public, a packaged, inexpensive public cloud service.

IIJ GIO highlights

1. Dynamic system structure created on a high-performance, feature-rich cloud platform

   The most salient advantage of this new system is the incredible
   improvement in system structure flexibility made possible
   through the advanced service architecture built on virtualized
   technology. Customers build systems by selecting the server
   resources (CPU core, memory size, and disk size) that best meet
   the customer's necessary requirements. Until now, flexible
   system structure could only be achieved through system
   integration (SI), but now it can be provided as a low-cost
   service.

2. Due to operational efficiencies, prices start as low as JPY 8,000 per month

   Open source software (OSS) is used for the OS and virtualized
   software, and by developing our own provisioning tool for
   controlling assignment of resources, and our own automated
   administrative tools for complex operations and monitoring,
   we achieve greater efficiency in both operations and cost.
   In addition to GIO services, IIJ's other service equipment is
   also being integrated into the cloud platform, and the savings
   on hardware acquisition costs are passed on to the customer
   as reasonable prices. A highly flexible and scalable cloud
   environment is now available for the low price of JPY 8,000
   per month.

3.